| The value of Democratic Platforms & Elections |
| Written by Alastair Sheehan, Finance & Operations Director, LiMo Foundation |
| Monday, 04 January 2010 13:18 |
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The Ancient Greeks created democracy (or so I understand), and the concept has certainly stood the test of time. The establishment of democracy brings with it openness, transparency and empowerment to those that reside within the boundaries of the democracy.The French philosopher, Charles Montesquieu, observed that for a democracy to function, its existence requires a virtuous people where the characteristic means of achieving cooperation is the voluntary observance, not of laws, but of informal codes of conduct. Such parallels with the LiMo Foundation are striking, for example LiMo has recently seen the commercialisation of the second release (R2) of the LiMo Platform which was a result of multiple members working collaboratively together in a way that complied with the LiMo Bylaws, but importantly, the collaboration was in a much deeper and more complex way than those defined by the LiMo Foundation Bylaws.
Another example of democracy in action within LiMo is the LiMo Foundation Board Election that determines which members will have seats on the LiMo Foundation Board during a particular year. The election takes place during the Annual All Members’ Meeting in Barcelona to coincide with the Mobile World Congress event. This year, the All Members Meeting will be held on Monday 15th February 2010 and will be followed by an Open Industry Event at 17:00 at the Barcelo Sants Hotel. If you would like to attend, please contact our Business Development Director, Andy Bush ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) to discuss further.
Young democracies are rarely perfect, but provided the democratic principles are adhered to, they ameliorate over time. Within LiMo, governance and collaboration based on democratic principles have produced good results to date, with some exciting plans on the horizon such as a stronger outreach to the developer community. Given the proven democratic constructs within LiMo, I am confident that the mobile industry at large will see the results of future improvements in the near term.
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